Austin Vacation, ACL Fest

My Austin trip, as expected, was awesome. Seeing Brian and Jude and meeting Brett and Ally, and hanging out with Adam, was just what I needed to get my mind off work and have some fun. Lucky for us, Hurrican Rita took a right turn and didn't leave one drop of rain on Austin. New Hampshire got more rain from Rita than Austin did. In fact, it was so dry on Saturday and Sunday that the dust from the ground kicked up by the crowds hung in the air like smog.















But let's back up. I flew out Wednesday and arrived in Austin around 10pm. Brian and Ally picked me up and we pretty much hung out the rest of the night. Brian had to work on Thursday, so Adam (Brian's roommate) and I watched some DVR-recorded TV and basically just sat around. It was better than work, that's for sure. Thursday night Brian and I met up with Brett (Brian's long-time friend) at this great restaurant called Papadeaux that had the best Halibut I've ever tasted. The wine was good too, but what do I know? We talked a bit about Brian and Brett's short film "Swerve," which they wrote together and is currently in pre-production. I had read the script a few months ago and was really impressed with it. I think they've both got real talent and I'm anxious to see how it turns out.

After dinner we went to Dave & Buster's and met up with Ally, Adam, and Amanda, a "friend" of Adam's. I had a couple colorful drinks -- "Big Wave Dave" and "Razzmatangela" if I remember correctly -- and then it was game time. Whoopdeedoo, we wasted money on silly tickets and charged our powercards. We went home and I think that was it.

Friday was the first day of the Festival. And it went a little something like this:

Mates of State: a fairly good set featuring a mix of new and old. But no "Proofs." Pic is from the ACL website. I was surprised by how young they were.



Next was Spoon, who we had seen the past two ACL Fests. They played a great set, but again, where was the predicted crowd pleaser, "Jonathan Fisk"? I was happy to see Brian enjoy the band a little more this time (in the past he's always been bored by their "simple" music). He'll get it eventually. Pic is mine.




I have a lot more to say, and more pictures to post, but I'm tired and have to work tomorrow. Brian has a few more photos that I'll post as well. Here's the one he's uploaded so far, and it's a good one:




From left: Brett, Brian, Me, Jude.

SQUARE ONE

My hard drive failed today. I lost everything. EVERYTHING. It started when my screen froze after trying to connect from Drudge Report to weatherunderground.com. When I restarted I could not get past a blue-screen error message. I spent my lunch hour talking to Dell Support, diagnosing the problem -- "You're hard drive has failed, sir" -- and writing down what I needed to do next.

Long story short, all my music, all my budget files, all my programs, links/favorites/lists/pwds, etc, are GONE. GONE. HISTORY. ERASED. LIKE THEY NEVER EXISTED. I'm getting a new hard drive installed sometime on Monday. And because Dell no longer manufactures Dimension 4700s, I have to download a bunch of other critical setup files from the internet, burn them to a cd, and then load them on my comp.

In the meantime, I will be suffering from Internet withdrawal. You see, like a lot of people my age, I'm a child of the Internet. And now I've lost my mommy.

What I'm most concerned about is my iPod data. Obviously, the device itself holds all my music right now, but what will happen when I reinstall the software? What about all my purchased music? It's funny, just this past week I got a warning from Apple recommending that I back up all my music on disc in case my hard drive fails. I completely ignored it. Now I feel like I've been careless.

I'd like to thank the Dell Technical Support Team for hiring Indians who can't utter one sentence without needing to repeat it because I can't understand a goddamn word they are saying.

Needless to say, I will be out of commission for a while, online-wise, for at least the next 5 days. So here's a forecast:

Saturday: Go Irish. Maybe a movie too.
Sunday: TBD
Monday: Work, and then Laguna Night w/ Lori.
Tuesday: Work, and then pack for Austin
Wednesday-Monday: Austin Awesomeness

oh who cares

Interesting moments from this past week (and I use "interesting" very loosely):

- Getting a call from the business unit controller at 11:30pm on Friday night and having to answer questions about millions of dollars.

- Going into work on Saturday morning and seeing fellow co-workers in weekend clothing. It's weird, trust me.

- Nearly missing all of the historic ND vs. Michigan game because I was working. (btw, way to go defense).

- My mom liking "Sin City."

- Watching episodes 1-4 of "Rescue Me: Season 1" on DVD. Recommended.

- Eating dinner with former Westinghouse co-worker who now works at Timberland. We share our frustration with our jobs and agree to come up with a get-rich-quick-scheme and leave corporate america for good.

- Lori's Halloween story about the time she and her friend dressed up as a maxi pad and tampon. We agree to dress up this year for work. Brainstorming as I write this. All ideas welcome.

- "Family Guy": Stewie playing Marco Polo with Helen Keller.

- Getting a too-short haircut thanks to a lazy SuperCuts employee who didn't know the meaning of "trim." No tip for you, shaver.

Mixes

Creating mixes for friends or family really tests your confidence in your musical tastes. I know *I* like something, but will this person agree with me? It also reinforces or rejects one's prior opinions of a certain artist or album. For example, I swear to God that my favorite DCFC album is "Something About Airplanes," yet no song from that album made it onto the mix (see below).

Josh's Mixes:

Not mixes in the strictest sense. These are artists I think Josh will like, so I combined one or two songs at a time so that he'll have a better idea if he wants to hear more.

Mix #1
1. Pretty Girls Make Graves - "This is Our Emergency"
2. Cat Power - "Free"
3. Cat Power - "He-War"
4. Death Cab For Cutie - "Blacking Out the Friction"
5. Death Cab For Cutie - "Why You'd Want to Live Here"
6. Notwist - "One With the Freaks"
7. Notwist - "Consequence"
8. Frou Frou - "Let Go"
9. Frou Frou - "Close Up"
10. The Arcade Fire - "Rebellion"

Mix #2
1. Twilight Singers - "Teenage Wristband" -- a great opener for any mix, if you ask me
2. Stellastarr* - "Somewhere Across Forever"
3. Stars - "Elevator Love Letter"
4. Stars - "Ageless Beauty"
5. Le Tigre - "Eau D'Bedroom Dancing"
6. Le Tigre - "Deceptacon"
7. Spoon - "Jonathan Fisk"
8. Spoon - "Anything You Want"
9. The Dismemberment Plan - "Superpowers"
10. The Dismemberment Plan - "Ellen and Ben"


Sleater-Kinney Mix

Josh heard them played in my Civic way back when, but I think he's forgotten. So here's my mix. I was surprised to see that the most represented album is "The Woods." Album is in ( ).

1. "Dance Song '97" (Dig Me Out)
2. "You're No Rock 'n Roll Fun" (All Hands On the Bad One)
3. "Heart Attack" (Call the Doctor)
4. "Get Up" (The Hot Rock)
5. "The Size of Our Love" (The Hot Rock)
6. "Sympathy" (One Beat)
7. "Step Aside" (One Beat)
8. "Entertain" (The Woods)
9. "Jumpers" (The Woods)
10. "Modern Girl" (The Woods)
11. "Everything" (The Woods, bonus)

Death Cab For Cutie Mix, for Lori:

I owe Lori a mix after she gave me Ben C. Foster. I think she'll like DCFC, but you can never tell (ask Jude). As I mentioned above, I couldn't find a spot for Something About Airplanes, particularly "Champagne From a Paper Cup" and "The Face That Launched...". I guess it's a credit to DCFC that it's hard to drop in songs from other albums without ruining the flow (ex. "Transatlanticism" should always follow "Tiny Vessels"). Or maybe I'm just too new at this.

1. "Why You'd Want to Live Here" (Photo Album)
2. "Lowell, MA" (We Have the Facts...)
3. "Blacking Out the Friction" (Photo Album)
4. "Coney Island" (Photo Album)
5. "Photobooth" (Forbidden Love EP)
6. "Syrofoam Plates" (Photo Album)
7. "Expo '86" (Transatlanticism)
8. "The Sound of Settling" (Transatlanticism)
9. "Tiny Vessels" (Transatlanticism)
10. "Transatlanticism" (Transatlanticism)

If it had come out earlier, Plans would've had a shot up there, I think.

bwah

All i've been doing is working. Worked today. Working tomorrow. Probably taking Monday off to regain my sanity.

I desperately need the austin trip to get away from this shit. I never thought the same corporate political misconduct that my dad experienced in pittsburgh would happen to me so early in my career. It's gotten to the point now where I'm rescheduling my GMAT and will not be enrolling in an MBA program (to have been paid by the company) until I have some sense of whether or not I want stay. The "stability" I spoke of in April when I turned 25 has pretty much disappeared.

So that's what's been going on lately. But I shouldn't complain. When i come home and turn on the news, my problems go away pretty quickly.

Oh, and I watched the ND game like a good little domer. Looked like a completely different team. Or maybe Pitt just sucks.